Westminstenders: The Bill Cash Appreciation Society

[RedToothBrush]

We've had a new thread pretty much everyday for the last week or so, so I'm short on inspiration.

There haven't been too many new developments today. There have been two ministerial resignations. Both were ministers close to Boris Johnson.

We had a vote to add an extension if we still have no deal agreed at the end of next week to the Withdrawal Bill. May has said she will do this anyway; this would merely tie her hands. It passed by 5 votes. It now is fast tracked to the committee stage and third reading.

A business of the house amendment by Benn to secure a debate and Indicative Vote 3 next week failed after a speakers vote. Bercow followed convention and didn't create a majority where there was not one (though under Erskine May he is free to do the opposite at his discretion).

Corbyn has met May for talks which have been described as construction, though we have no further details though curiously Emily Thornberry put out a statement demanding a ref on whatever was decided which suggests Corbyn isn't keen on the idea. Rumours are of Schrodingers Customs Union: somehow being in a union but not a union. It can't be called a customs union. And Liam Fox has said Corbyn can't have his union. Though he may have a vested interest as he loses his job if Corbyn gets his way.

Oh and the Commons photocopier broke so no one knows what is currently supposed to be happening.

Otherwise it's been a quiet day, all things considered. Too quiet?

If the EU think that is a tactic that the UK will use, howabout then they will refuse a long extension

If they think May & Corbyn are serious about a Brexit plan, they'd go for that

Even if the UK Revokes, the WA cannot be significantly changed without damaging EU fundamentals like the Single Market
So I expect the EU would either offer a 3rd EEA pillar - without cake -
or stick to the WA and go the Article 7 route if the UK really tries blackmail

Also, if the UK continues to try to Brexit after Revoke, then of course the lack of investment in the UK would continue,
as would the drift of firms out of the UK
A long decline, maybe worse than if the WA had been signed.

Then too, Trump will go by 2024, even 2020, so the UK might be facing a president who wants a stable EU and hence would firmly slap down any such Uk tactics

I must admit, the danger of such UK wrecking tactics is why I would be one of those who might well vote for a soft Brexit over Remain, in any PV

It would depend on whether the Tories - who are the only party who would do that - have torn themselves apart sufficiently

Time is ripe for resurrection of the Poorhouse and the implementation of a private prisons system then

The Lords isn't scheduled to sit tomorrow.

(and with debate in progress I don't think this can be changed midway through)

BCF I don't think the UK have ever taken EU deadlines seriously. They think that is an unelected dictatorship where the commission can just click their fingers and everyone falls in line, remember.

I don't think may will have a plan. And I think we will exit on the 12th (we also need time to legislate for an extension in domestic law if we do get one and David Allen Green has already commented that last time they only just did it in time and this time there is less time)

On a personal level an extension to 22nd May would be a bonus. Looks like exchange of contracts possible this week and exchange is often two weeks after that.

We are trying to find a storage unit atm. Can't find one. All full.

BCF a ref with no deal, soft Brexit and remain would be something I'd struggle to decide how to vote in.

Id be afraid of a split of moderates / remainers against hard core leavers.

Ultimately I'd go with whichever out of soft Brexit and remain I thought was more likely to win. I don't know which that is though.

Anything but no deal.

Time is ripe for resurrection of the Poorhouse and the implementation of a private prisons system then

Nah, far too much work. This is the 21st century, I'm sure science can come up with cheap ways to off the poor ... ideally without damaging their organs. Would be a shame to let them go to waste when there are so many rich needy people that could pay.

Just remember I type this in a week when SCOTUS has decided that a painless execution is not a right www.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2019/04/02/the-supreme-court-rules-that-a-murderer-has-no-right-to-a-painless-death (which does really call into question the point of the 8th amendment).

Given how many people seem to die in police custody in the UK without any comeback, we might be a trialblazer ? (You are far more likely to be killed by a policeman than a terrorist in the UK, by the way ....)

Red, if the Cooper Bill goes through amending the exit date wouldn’t have to go through both houses anymore, isn’t that what the government amendment that passed yesterday did? Or am I remembering it wrong?

(Lords update: still on Business Motion, third or fourth “shut the fuck up” motion, 4 amendments to go before actual bill gets debated. Still fascinated but decidedly less so.)

DGRosetti
www.suffolkgazette.com/news/workhouses/

BCF a ref with no deal, soft Brexit and remain would be something I'd struggle to decide how to vote in.

Remain doesn't need to be an option. If we can't get a clear mandate for a specific Leave option, then it's all off. Why should Leave have two bites of the cherry ?

Ah didn't know that about the Cooper Bill it does explain the desperate attempt to filibuster in the Lords though.

Laura Kuenssberg @bbclaurak
Govt preference seems to be to keep process going with Labour instead of putting more proposals back to the Commons any time soon

Session finished now and nothing's been planned for Monday ,which means no indicative votes then, and senior sources indicating it's more likely PM will go to Brussels next week still in talks with Corbyn, than having had more votes

Well that's us fucked then!

The WA as it stands plus a decade of stalling pointless negotiation already poses the risk of continual drift and uncertainty for the UK with little incentive for the EU to actually engage. That is why it is so bad.

That makes Revoke better option from UK's pov. Also the EU could forestall a UK awkward squad campaign by moving forward with Macron's Common Market 2 tier plan, with the UK as the lynchpin for the Outer Circle.

Given both UK actually wanted Macron's option pre EU Ref it seems like a complete lack of imagination and flexibility on both sides to not see a way to negotiate this solution.

Was literally falling off my chair laughing at Ken Clarke (Daily Politics) trying to assert that the EU would fully consult us if we were in a CU but outside the EU. He really thinks if the net exporters in Germany etc can trade access to our market so they can access the US they will give us primary consultation rights and respect our views. Would be funny if not so shockingly embarrassing coming from him - just shows what Tories are prepared to do to try to save face / Party

Does she not realise that whatever she and Corbyn come up with ALSO needs to go to the HoC? Or is she deliberately going for a refusal so she can blame the EU? This is baffling.

Well I'm off to The British Heart Foundation to (hopefully) buy a freezer for stock piling...I can't afford a new one 😒

Seems Tories making a concerted effort to slow the Bill down in the hopes they either all fall asleep or go home. The Tories know that odds of getting Bill through is more or less assured so if they can't win by fair means they do it by foul means. The Tories really are the nasty party.

Nikki da Costa @nmdacosta
Significance is that means we definitely won't have further indicative votes etc., until Tuesday - assuming nothing has been tabled by the government this afternoon.

Arj Singh @ singharj
is there no way around this? E.g. amending business of the house motion on Monday?

Nikki da Costa @nmdacosta
Exceptionally "the House can waive the requirement of notice...if the motion is moved under the sanction of the Chair and with the concurrence of the House". HOWEVER "the objection of any Member is enough to prevent the waiver of notice". Erskine May 394-395.

So no way around it then...

Good luck crabbing hoping it's a bargain.

A friend has just shared this. It feels like all those occasions we’ve asked Leavers for something other than sound bites and sums up perfectly the futility of trying to counter illogical No Deal arguments with facts.

www.facebook.com/1777176712575796/posts/2032389487054516?sfns=mo

Colin Yeo
@ColinYeo1
Just out of court on a case where the Home Office wants to remove a 78 year old woman with Advanced Alzheimer’s Dementia.

They say she can be put in a care home in her own country for the time she has left.

This is what Theresa May’s 2012 immigration rules mean.

Omg! that's terrible Susan.

Commons Press Office @ hocpress
We are aware of a water leak on the estate and are taking urgent action to resolve it

^
The leak was urgently dealt with and has now been isolated. The House of Commons maintenance team is currently assessing the damage.^

We would like to clarify this was not a sewage leak.

I wonder if he was our pp babooshka, what with the comments about the maths? It's like some leavers are caricatures of leavers. Mark Francois is another.

Babooshka
Dunning Kruger effect at its absolute finest

@ pippacrerar
Theresa May has missed a Brexit votes deadline because of the water leak

And yet they spend hours debating if they should debate something..,

susan what did we do to deserve TM? She's horrid and I can't say anymore as it'll be deleted. I hope the court sees sense.

They say she can be put in a care home in her own country for the time she has left.

I wonder how many people thought I was exaggerating ?

DM suffered dementia before she died - incredibly aggressive. Went from tickety-boo to dead (mercifully) in just under 3 years. Reading stories like that, there's a crumb of comfort in the fantasy that God called the good people to avoid having to witness this. - Put that up your chocolate runway, Mr. Francois.